An Honest Letter
by Atolm2000
Summary: Only really PG for some slight language. Preseries Sanzo finds some odd ways to cope with putting up with temple politics...


…Yanno, what's sad is, this has been sitting in my PDA for four months now. Requiring no more than a line or so of editing. And I only JUST remembered to upload it ;;

If I owned Saiyuki/Sanzo/Goku etc., I wouldn't be posting on now would I?

WHAT THE F HAPPENED TO MY PARAGRAPH INDENTS -AND MY SECTION BREAK MARKERS!

-

(There's a section break here that deleted and won't let me put back yaaay!)

Sanzo sat at his desk in the Temple of the Setting Sun, staring at a few blank sheets of paper, the pen sitting in the inkwell. The sun was streaming in the third-floor window, eliminating the need for candles or lights in the small, relatively sparse room. He rocked back in the chair, looking out the window. The small south courtyard was easily visible, the lotus pond filling most of the courtyard along the wall, one gnarled water-dwelling tree rising out of it; the tree had buds that would open into red flowers soon. It didn't grow anywhere in the area, and was the pride and joy of the groundskeeper; it been there almost as long as Sanzo had been alive.

The courtyard was empty; he fought off the temptation to get up and go sit out there, he had business to deal with. Some rich merchant in another city had died without heirs and left his entire fortune to the temple there, a last-ditch bid at buying off the gods; Sanzo had been meaning to write a letter to them, nudging them to put it to some kind of good use. The temple there was large and well-kept, but the area had been having a lean year.

He turned back to his desk, staring at the paper again. He needed to write the actual letter, but every time he put the pen to the paper, all he could think of was what he truly wanted to say, not how to word it so that they'd listen. After more staring at the blank paper, he decided to just let it out - he could write a proper letter once he'd gotten the honest version out of his system.

He covered the sheet in cramped, jagged writing, finally ending it at the bottom of the page; setting the pen back in the inkwell, he stared at it again. It would be nice to be able to send this to them, or say it to their faces, but that wouldn't get them to hear him out; he'd have to resort to pleasantries and double talk, if he wanted to be sure they'd take care of the people that needed it. He went to crumple it up, then stopped; it'd be just what he didn't need right now, for one of the temple gossips to find this, and it seemed wrong somehow to destroy the version that was his honest opinion like that. Standing, he stared out the window at the top of the tree; the old groundskeeper had just finished cleaning the lotus pond, packing up and leaving after fussing over it. The tree was in the center of the pond, where it was difficult to reach from the courtyard; most care had to be indirect, dealing with the pond, and anything done to the tree drove the old man crazy.

_"Master Sanzo!"_

_ Koumyou turned to the groundskeeper running over. The upper branches of the tree were festooned with colored paper airplanes, painting the boughs well before the flowers even budded. The groundskeeper bowed enough to show respect, but no more. "Might I please, please trouble you about those...things! They're stuck all over the tree again, and I can't get them out until something knocks them loose, then I have to fish bits of wet paper out of the pond - surely you can throw those outside the temple somewhere!"'_

_ Koumyou studied the tree speculatively. "Surely it can't be that much trouble...They add a bit of color to the courtyard, and sometimes it's worth a bit of hassle to brighten things up a little." He smiled benevolently and turned to walk away, leaving the flustered groundskeeper trying to figure out if he was relaying some cryptic lesson or just trying to dodge taking responsibility for cleaning it up._

A perverse whim hit Sanzo; he picked up the honest letter, folded it with the writing hidden inside, and tossed it. It landed neatly caught in the very highest branches.

The groundskeeper was going to go nuts.

His prank done, he sat back down to write the polite version.

(And another section break)

The groundskeeper looked back, and spotted an angular patch of white in the branches of his tree. He glared at it, dumbfounded, as if it were some old ghost risen from the grave to gnaw at his sanity.

He climbed the stairs to a certain third floor room in disbelief, knocking on the door.

"Yes, what?" Was the snapped response, by which he inferred he was supposed to open the door.

Sanzo was sitting at the desk, bent over a piece of paper, pen in one hand, glaring balefully at the door.

"Ah…sorry to trouble you…what might you be doing currently?"

"Working on an official letter." It was snarled in a tone that clearly implied he was not to be disturbed further. Koumyou's apprentice maybe, but he seemed to have all the sense of humor of a rabid badger at this point; perhaps it'd come from another upper-story window. Either way, it didn't seem safe to bother him, and the old priest had no clue if his gun was within reach or if he was cranky enough to use it.

"Ah….well…it's nothing, nothing really." He bowed, pulling the door shut as he walked out.

Sanzo returned to the letter, a dry, malicious smirk crossing his face after the door closed.

(Section break)

Wandering back out past the courtyard, the groundskeeper paused to worry over the bloody thing. Now as then, there was no way to get it out, not without someone climbing the tree, which would be horribly messy and damage the lotuses and the koi if he got one of the apprentices to do it.

That's when he spotted Goku leaning in the archway with a chunk of bread, glancing both ways to check for pursuit before eating.

Finding out where he'd gotten it that he was avoiding notice came secondary, although the boy did jump and put it behind his back with a very well-feigned look of innocence at the old man's "Excuse me."

The old man smiled congenially as he bowed, trying to play off that he'd seen anything suspicious. "Might I be able to trouble you to help with something?"

"Uhh…like what?"

"There's something caught in the branches of the tree in the lotus pond that I can't retrieve, and I was wondering if you would get it down for me."

"The one you're always chasing me out of?" A more plotting look had appeared on the boy's face. "I dunno…why don't we make a deal for it?"

"…A deal…what kind of a deal?" The old man wavered.

"Since you're going to have to let me climb it to get whatever's stuck…you may as well let me go up there whenever, right?"

He blanched at the idea - but at least Sanzo and Goku were here rarely enough that he wouldn't have to worry about it too much, and if it could be made a running agreement...

"If I let you sit there whenever you want, can I get you to clean trash out of the branches as well? It'd simply be a small thing..."

"It's a deal then!" Goku cheerfully snagged the old man's hand and shook it, then darted over to the pond. Transferring the bread to his mouth without stopping, he hopped easily from the edge of the pond to catch the lowermost branch, pulling up easily. The groundskeeper cringed at how much the branches shook as Goku made it in a matter of seconds to the top of the tree, standing triumphantly on the topmost branches with the paper airplane in one hand, bread in the other. "Got it!"

"Good, good! Now can you bring it here?"

"Hey, there's writing here..." Goku opened it enough to recognize the handwriting, then sat in the crook of the branches, eating and reading, seemingly oblivious to the groundskeeper pleading to just bring it down.

_Most deeply honored sirs - _

As polite as it looked, Goku could almost hear the sarcasm dripping out of Sanzo's voice. Nobody was "Most Deeply Honored" to him.

_ It has come to my attention that your temple has recently come into a very large sum of money recently, thanks to a particularly wretched bastard developing a fear of the afterlife in his last days. I would hope that a temple of Buddha would be able to make more of such than its original crass intent, but I know you people too well. In fact, you're going to ignore everything I have to say, so you may as well burn this letter right now._

_ If you're still reading - curiosity, I'm sure, you've probably already decided how to spend it - I would like to point out that your province has had a long dry season, and many people who worked hard all season have nothing to eat regardless, while you people are living well off the offerings and savings you've stored. You're the richest lazy beggars in existence. The sum you've received could easily alleviate the suffering of your people, but then, what're the masses to your enlightenment?_

_ I realize that expecting you to actually demonstrate the compassion you're so fond of spouting off about is probably too much; you're all too busy wallowing in hypocrisy to pay attention to some violent heretic like myself. So, in a few weeks when I hear that your temple is as splendid as ever and the people at its feet are dying, I'm not going to be surprised, because it'd be too much to ask for you people to open your eyes and accept your own glaring, hideous faults, much less that there might be people outside your gates that need your help. More important to spend eight hours a day meditating on the meaning of kindness than to actually show any, right? So I'm going to do what I've always done and fuck off now, to go live like Hell because I'm not willing to lie to myself about my many faults and failings like all of you worms. _

_ The Honored Genjo Sanzo, who despises you almost as much as you despise him_

By the time he finished reading, Goku was grinning ear to ear, the bread gone. The groundskeeper was loudly pleading for him to hand it over; glancing up, he saw a flicker of gold and white in Sanzo's window.

As much of an asshole as Sanzo made of himself, every once in a while he did something that proved he was a decent guy at heart, no matter how much he tried to hide or deny it.

Goku gave the letter a speculative look, then looked down at the groundskeeper. He hopped easily down the branches to the edge of the lotus pond, and for a moment the old man believed he was going to turn over the paper - then he took off running for the building.

The old groundskeeper chased for three steps, then flopped down sitting by the lotus pond, despairing of ever being able to deal with Sanzo or his ward.

Sanzo's door swung open without so much as a knock; he didn't need to look up from his writing to know it was Goku, still carrying the other letter in one hand. "Ey, Sanzo, I think you lost something."

"Like I really care right now."

Goku leaned over his shoulder, Sanzo adopting an even more irritated hunch. "Whatcha doing?"

"Writing a letter."

"Another one?"

"A polite one." He snarled the word 'polite', as if its existence were an offense.

Goku tried to read part of it, got put off by the flowery language that seemed almost as painful to Sanzo as it was to him, and flopped out on the wood-frame bed, holding the other letter up to look at it, then dropping his arm draped over his chest. "I think I like this one better."

"Yes, but if I send that one, they can say I 'didn't show proper respect' and blow it off without a second thought. If I'm polite about it, they have fewer excuses for ignoring me."

"Meehhh...the temples are stupid."

Sanzo chuckled darkly over the scratching of his pen. "No argument there."

"Why do you stay with them then?"

Sanzo set the pen down, turning in his chair and holding up the Maten Sutra off his shoulder with one hand. "Not like I have a choice. I'm stuck with them as long as I'm a Sanzo."

He went back to the letter; Goku sat up, legs hanging off the edge of the bed. "A Sanzo? Your name means something?"

The pen-scratching paused briefly. "It's a title. I inherited it from my mentor."

"So what's your real name?"

"That is my name." He could feel Goku's bewildered gaze on his back. "It's not something you just take on and walk away from. When you become Sanzo, that's your name and your life."

"So that's why you don't just quit the temple?"

Sanzo nodded quietly, trying to focus on the letter. "Part of it."

"What's the rest of it?" After a few seconds of silence, Goku realized he was being ignored. "It's gotta be important, to keep you working with these assholes. How'd you get the Sanzo thing anyway?" He hopped to his feet, leaning over Sanzo's shoulders trying to catch the priest's eye. "You inherited it, so why don't you just pass it on if you don't want it? You must've had a name before you became Sanzo, right? How long've you been Sanzo, if it wasn't your original name? If the temple people don't like you, why don't they give it to someone else? You're not very good at the whole priest thing, you'd think they'd have done more about it. What's your old name? Who-"

The next sound was of a paper fan connecting with a skull, and an outraged "Shut up!"

Sanzo turned back to his letter; Goku sat on the ground behind the chair, rubbing his head and looking up with a wounded look. "You're mean, you know that?"

"Keep talking and I'll kill you."

Goku raised an eyebrow, giving Sanzo a skeptical, disbelieving look. He always said that, but was probably more likely to kill himself than Goku. "So why don't you give the job to someone else?"

"Because once you're Sanzo, that is your life. In order to give it to someone else, I would have to name an heir and die." There was a louder tap punctuating the word 'die', as he stabbed the paper with the pen harder than he probably should have. "I have no plans of dying anytime soon."

"...Oh." Goku sat by the chair, mulling it over. "Wait...you keep ditching apprentices...does this mean if you get killed, I might get stuck with it?" There was a tinge of dread and horror to his words.

Sanzo stopped writing, turning his chair and leaning down to fix Goku with a harsh, searching glare. "Don't be an idiot. You're the last person I'd name as an heir."

As Sanzo turned back to his work, Goku wasn't sure if he should be relieved or insulted. "I wouldn't want it anyway."

The room was silent save pen-scratching for another couple minutes, then Sanzo dropped the pen in its holder, folded the two-page letter neatly, took a couple gold ribbons out of the desk drawer, and fumbled with a wax seal and a candle to melt it. Once it dried, he stood up, put away his reading glasses, and swept toward the door.

"Ey...what do you want me to do with this?" Goku held up the other letter.

"I don't care. Burn it or something."

"Why'd you write it then, if you're not gonna do anything with it?"

"...Because I felt like my time would be wasted if I didn't write at least one honest letter."


End file.
